Adebayosoye Awonaike: Tackling Cloud Modernization Challenges at Legal & General Capital

Adebayosoye Awonaike, Head of Data at Legal & General Capital
outlines his cloud transformation journey at the investment
company 

Over recent months, investment firm Legal & General Capital
has undertaken a cloud transformation journey to democratize data
within the organization.


In this week’s Business of Data podcast, Legal & General
Capital’s Head of Data Adebayosoye Awonaike, talks about his
experiences leading this transformation, and the challenges faced
along the way. The company’s data strategy requires readily
available and usable data throughout the organization. 


He says: “We needed to centralize data, that’s really driven our
conversations over the last few months because we had to shop
across a range of suppliers. Ultimately, we decided we were going
cloud because that’s just what would work for the
business.” 
Finding The Right Partner for Cloud Transformation 

As cloud adoption continues across organizations and industries,
finding the right solutions provider needs the transformation
leader to be aware of their business’s unique needs. 


One of Awonaike’s initial challenges was in finding the best
cloud partner to undertake the journey with. He based the
decision on the alignment between Legal & General’s strategic
direction and the vendor’s own roadmap and ambitions. Next, he
focused on developing his team’s skills to maximize the benefit
of the initiative. 


“It was really about building a team to deliver this solution, a
team with a wide range of skills, from solutions architects to
testers,” Awonaike says.  


He also cultivates his team's storytelling abilities to increase
cross-functional engagement.  


“While a business product owner could reach out to just the scrum
master, I would rather have the data engineer tell the story
through his demo than for him to just do the technical bit,” he
continues. 
Don’t Stop Reiterating Business Value 

Even with the cloud solution in place, data leaders still have to
prove value in their investment. Awonaike finds that regular
scrum sessions between his team and the rest of the organization
ensure the transformation unfolds in line with evolving business
needs.  


Awonaike explains: “Business requirements can be volatile. You
can’t hear the requirements once and never check back in with
business. You need to keep the engagement going, so we have
two-week sprints that basically let us fail very quickly then get
things right.” 


“No business leader wants to throw away money. So, the question
is what value are you adding? If you're able to paint the picture
of what value is, whether it’s tangible, in terms of revenue or
intangible, there has to be a value the business can connect
with.” he concludes. 
Key Takeaways 


Finding the right cloud provider. The ideal
solutions provider has to meet your business's unique set of
needs 









NwNmwalnTHrOjXEiVQdE